


A Trollhunters Inheritance

by Khaleesi_0f_Trolls



Series: Laura Lake's Legacy [1]
Category: Trollhunters (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst chapter won't happen for another few chapters, Enjoy the first few chapters containing nothing but fluff, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Jim deals with fatherhood but he handles it quite well, Laura's childhood shenanigans, prepare to hate me when it happens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-05-16 05:24:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14805194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khaleesi_0f_Trolls/pseuds/Khaleesi_0f_Trolls
Summary: Laura Lake has been raised around trolls since the day she came into the world. But her life is changed the day her father is forced to depart that very world and leaves her with a responsibility she never dreamed of shouldering.





	1. Birth of a Hero

**Author's Note:**

> So I've been working and writing on this story long before season 3, so please try watching the new season before reading this book to avoid some spoilers that will be mentioned.
> 
> Also to add some events in season 3 will not be canon to this story

"Master Jim hasn't called in a while." Blinky muttered as he stared at the phone that was lying in front of him on the stone table and looked to Aaarrrggh. "I do hope nothing has happened to Claire or their unborn welp."   
  
"Scared, for them." Aaarrrggh said sadly as he laid his chin down on the table.   
  
"Have faith old friend, Claire's a strong girl. She'll pull through." Blinky assured his friend and reached across the table to pat his shoulder. "Remember how we all were terrified for Nomura when she had her first welp?"   
  
Aaarrrggh nodded, remembering how Draal had been pacing in the Forge and nearly fainted when he heard the news. They had all been anxious about whether or not the changeling made it through the birth, and all of that fear faded away when Nomura emerged from the birthing cave with a little pink welp in her arms, squirming and whining loudly.   
  
"And not only that, but she's being assisted in this birth by Barbara! An excellent doctor who will bring her new grandchild into the world!" Blinky added with a smile before checking the small mobile device. "Should we send a message to them?"   
  
"Yes." Aaarrrggh replied as his friend scooped up his phone and sent a swift text to both Jim, Toby and Strickler, who had been the one to inform them that they were all at the hospital.   
  
**[Blinky]:** Any news yet on Claire?   
  
Almost immediately a message from Toby popped up.   
  
[

"Master Jim hasn't called in a while." Blinky muttered as he stared at the phone that was lying in front of him on the stone table and looked to Aaarrrggh. "I do hope nothing has happened to Claire or their unborn welp."   
  
"Scared, for them." Aaarrrggh said sadly as he laid his chin down on the table.   
  
"Have faith old friend, Claire's a strong girl. She'll pull through." Blinky assured his friend and reached across the table to pat his shoulder. "Remember how we all were terrified for Nomura when she had her first welp?"   
  
Aaarrrggh nodded, remembering how Draal had been pacing in the Forge and nearly fainted when he heard the news. They had all been anxious about whether or not the changeling made it through the birth, and all of that fear faded away when Nomura emerged from the birthing cave with a little pink welp in her arms, squirming and whining loudly.   
  
"And not only that, but she's being assisted in this birth by Barbara! An excellent doctor who will bring her new grandchild into the world!" Blinky added with a smile before checking the small mobile device. "Should we send a message to them?"   
  
"Yes." Aaarrrggh replied as his friend scooped up his phone and sent a swift text to both Jim, Toby and Strickler, who had been the one to inform them that they were all at the hospital.   
  
[Blinky]: Any news yet on Claire?   
  
Almost immediately a message from Toby popped up.   
  
[Tobias]: we just got news from Dr. Lake   
It's a girl!   
OMG she's got such tiny hands!   
And her hair looks so soft!   
She looks like a mini Claire!   
A photo had followed the last message to show them a tiny human infant swaddled in a pastel pink blanket with a lot dark brown hair on its head and being held by a tired looking Claire and Jim standing at her side wearing hospital scrubs and a wide smile.   
  
"Aaarrrggh look at her! Oh and Tobias said her name is...Laura Barbara Lake! A lovely name!" Blinky exclaimed, showing his friend the photograph. The larger troll squinted to look at the screen properly.   
  
"Tiny, very tiny." He commented and Blinky grinned.   
  
"But not for long! In a few months she'll grow and soon be walking, running, babbling, oh perhaps we can finally start teaching her about troll lore!"   
  
"Blinkous!" The two trolls turned to see Draal walk into the library with an anxious look on his face. "Any...any news on the Trollhunter's child?" He asked and Blinky nodded happily.   
  
"A little girl! And she's quite close in age to your own welp!"   
  
A few weeks earlier Nomura gave birth to a very small welp, a boy, Draal had named Agate. The little welp was so small no one was sure if he would survive to adulthood or be strong enough to defend himself when he reached that age, but Draal had been determined to prove their people wrong about his son and so far, the little welp was still alive.   
  
"Then perhaps the Trollhunter's welp will consider being friends with mine." Draal replied with a small shrug. "I'm surprised that this happened today, didn't they say they were expecting her in two weeks?"   
  
"Well from what master Jim's mother told me, sometimes the welps are born a bit earlier than expected." Blinky explained and held up a small white book from a nearby table. "Sometimes the females are in labor for hours at a time, and poor Claire nearly gave birth to her during their ceremony."   
  
"Well what are we waiting for? Let us alert Trollmarket to tell them the great news! The birth of a Trollhunter's child is one to be celebrated by the whole tribe!" Draal exclaimed.   
  
The three trolls hurried out of the library to find the citizens of Trollmarket standing outside. Blinky quickly cleared his voice and raised his voice to yell, " I have received news on the child of our Trollhunter! On this day our first human Trollhunter, Jim Lake, has become a father to a baby girl who was named Laura Barbra Lake!" Several trolls started to shout in joy before Blinky motioned for them to quiet down. "And let us also recall that several years ago today was the day that our Trollhunter defeated Gunmar! Let us celebrate these two days as one!"   
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   
  
"I still can't believe it...I'm actually a dad." Jim whispered as he watched his mother place his newborn in her little bed. "Did this really happen?"   
  
"It did happen Jim, but I can see why you're still surprised." Barbara chuckled as she adjusted the baby's position and gave a small sigh. "It remember when you were born, you were so small and frail, and you wouldn't stop crying until the nurse placed you in my arms."   
  
"She looks like Claire, but with slightly darker hair." Jim murmured as he looked down at his daughter. "But she's got my eyes and smile."   
  
"And let's see if she's got your knack of getting out of crazy situations." Claire added with a small laugh.

"I'm sure she has it." Jim laughed as he walked over to his wife's bed and smiled. "Can you believe we're finally parents?"

"It's still hard to believe." Claire replied, taking her husband's hands. "Do you think the troll's will like her?"

"Of course they will! Blinky recently sent me a very excited text!" Jim assured her as he handed his wife his phone to show her the message. "See? 'Good to hear! Please let us know when you're bringing her so we can tone down the celebrating.' Guess at this moment they're celebrating."

"And how long do these celebrations last?" Barbra asked.

"Uh...I'm not even sure. I don't know how many celebrations there were for the births of children from any Trollhunters, but I'm sure this is the first they had in centuries." Jim replies. "But I'm sure Laura's birth will be celebrated."

Just then, Laura began to cry. Jim immediately rushed over to his daughter and carefully picked her up to soothe her. "Shhhh, shhhh, it's okay Laura daddy is here. Daddy is right here." Jim murmured as his daughter's cries began to cease. "Do you wanna go with mommy? Or do you want to be with grandma?"

"Here, hand her to me." Claire chuckled as Jim passed Laura over to her. She carefully adjusted her daughter so her little head was resting on her shoulder as she rubbed Laura's little back and began to gently hum. "You wanna sing to her Jim?"

"You sure?" Jim asked in surprise as Claire handed him their daughter. "What do I sing to her?"

"Remember that one song that you changed a bit to sing to her when she was in the womb? Why not that one?" Barbra suggests.

"Oh that one." Jim cleared his throat as Claire began to gently hum and looked down at his daughter. "Okay here we go. Dear Laura, what to say to you? You have my eyes, you have your grandmother’s name. When you came into the world, you cried and it broke my heart."

So far, Laura hadn't started crying like he expected her to, so Jim carefully laid her head on his shoulder with one hand supporting his back and the under placed under her legs to keep her balanced. "I’m dedicating every day to you, domestic life was never quite my style. When you smile, you knock me out, I fall apart. And I thought I was so smart. You will come of age with our young nation, we’ll bleed and fight for you, we’ll make it right for you. If we lay a strong enough foundation, we’ll pass it on to you, we’ll give the world to you. And you’ll blow us all away. Someday, someday. Yeah, you’ll blow us all away. Someday, someday."

Claire smiled when she noticed her daughter was asleep. Jim gave a small sigh of relief as he sat himself down on a chair to rest his legs. He heard a small click and glanced over to see his mother snapping a picture of them.

“What?" Barbara asked when she noticed Jim looking at her.

"Oh it's nothing. Can you send it to Blinky?" Jim replied. "And maybe print it later?"

Barbara smiled warmly at her son. "Of course, he and the others deserve to see this sweet moment."

**[Tobias]:** we just got news from Dr. Lake   
It's a girl!   
OMG she's got such tiny hands!   
And her hair looks so soft!   
She looks like a mini Claire!

  
A photo had followed the last message to show them a tiny human infant swaddled in a pastel pink blanket with a lot dark brown hair on its head and being held by a tired looking Claire and Jim standing at her side wearing hospital scrubs and a wide smile.   
  
"Aaarrrggh look at her! Oh and Tobias said her name is...Laura Barbara Lake! A lovely name!" Blinky exclaimed, showing his friend the photograph. The larger troll squinted to look at the screen properly.   
  
"Tiny, very tiny." He commented and Blinky grinned.   
  
"But not for long! In a few months she'll grow and soon be walking, running, babbling, oh perhaps we can finally start teaching her about troll lore!"   
  
"Blinkous!" The two trolls turned to see Draal walk into the library with an anxious look on his face. "Any...any news on the Trollhunter's child?" He asked and Blinky nodded happily.   
  
"A little girl! And she's quite close in age to your own welp!"   
  
A few weeks earlier Nomura gave birth to a very small welp, a boy, Draal had named Agate. The little welp was so small no one was sure if he would survive to adulthood or be strong enough to defend himself when he reached that age, but Draal had been determined to prove their people wrong about his son and so far, the little welp was still alive.   
  
"Then perhaps the Trollhunter's welp will consider being friends with mine." Draal replied with a small shrug. "I'm surprised that this happened today, didn't they say they were expecting her in two weeks?"   
  
"Well from what master Jim's mother told me, sometimes the welps are born a bit earlier than expected." Blinky explained and held up a small white book from a nearby table. "Sometimes the females are in labor for hours at a time, and poor Claire nearly gave birth to her during their ceremony."   
  
"Well what are we waiting for? Let us alert Trollmarket to tell them the great news! The birth of a Trollhunter's child is one to be celebrated by the whole tribe!" Draal exclaimed.   
  
The three trolls hurried out of the library to find the citizens of Trollmarket standing outside. Blinky quickly cleared his voice and raised his voice to yell, " I have received news on the child of our Trollhunter! On this day our first human Trollhunter, Jim Lake, has become a father to a baby girl who was named Laura Barbra Lake!" Several trolls started to shout in joy before Blinky motioned for them to quiet down. "And let us also recall that several years ago today was the day that our Trollhunter defeated Gunmar! Let us celebrate these two days as one!"

* * *

  
"I still can't believe it...I'm actually a dad." Jim whispered as he watched his mother place his newborn in her little bed. "Did this really happen?"   
  
"It did happen Jim, but I can see why you're still surprised." Barbara chuckled as she adjusted the baby's position and gave a small sigh. "It remember when you were born, you were so small and frail, and you wouldn't stop crying until the nurse placed you in my arms."   
  
"She looks like Claire, but with slightly darker hair." Jim murmured as he looked down at his daughter. "But she's got my eyes and smile."   
  
"And let's see if she's got your knack of getting out of crazy situations." Claire added with a small laugh.

"I'm sure she has it." Jim laughed as he walked over to his wife's bed and smiled. "Can you believe we're finally parents?"

"It's still hard to believe." Claire replied, taking her husband's hands. "Do you think the troll's will like her?"

"Of course they will! Blinky recently sent me a very excited text!" Jim assured her as he handed his wife his phone to show her the message. "See? 'Good to hear! Please let us know when you're bringing her so we can tone down the celebrating.' Guess at this moment they're celebrating."

"And how long do these celebrations last?" Barbra asked.

"Uh...I'm not even sure. I don't know how many celebrations there were for the births of children from any Trollhunters, but I'm sure this is the first they had in centuries." Jim replies. "But I'm sure Laura's birth will be celebrated."

Just then, Laura began to cry. Jim immediately rushed over to his daughter and carefully picked her up to soothe her. "Shhhh, shhhh, it's okay Laura daddy is here. Daddy is right here." Jim murmured as his daughter's cries began to cease. "Do you wanna go with mommy? Or do you want to be with grandma?"

"Here, hand her to me." Claire chuckled as Jim passed Laura over to her. She carefully adjusted her daughter so her little head was resting on her shoulder as she rubbed Laura's little back and began to gently hum. "You wanna sing to her Jim?"

"You sure?" Jim asked in surprise as Claire handed him their daughter. "What do I sing to her?"

"Remember that one song that you changed a bit to sing to her when she was in the womb? Why not that one?" Barbra suggests.

"Oh that one." Jim cleared his throat as Claire began to gently hum and looked down at his daughter. "Okay here we go. Dear Laura, what to say to you? You have my eyes, you have your grandmother’s name. When you came into the world, you cried and it broke my heart."  So far, Laura hadn't started crying like he expected her to, so Jim carefully laid her head on his shoulder with one hand supporting his back and the under placed under her legs to keep her balanced.

"I’m dedicating every day to you, domestic life was never quite my style. When you smile, you knock me out, I fall apart. And I thought I was so smart. You will come of age with our young nation, we’ll bleed and fight for you, we’ll make it right for you. If we lay a strong enough foundation, we’ll pass it on to you, we’ll give the world to you. And you’ll blow us all away. Someday, someday. Yeah, you’ll blow us all away. Someday, someday."

Claire smiled when she noticed her daughter was asleep. Jim gave a small sigh of relief as he sat himself down on a chair to rest his legs. He heard a small click and glanced over to see his mother snapping a picture of them.

“What?" Barbara asked when she noticed Jim looking at her.

"Oh it's nothing. Can you send it to Blinky?" Jim replied. "And maybe print it later?"

Barbara smiled warmly at her son. "Of course, he and the others deserve to see this sweet moment."


	2. No Blessings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jim and Claire arrive back to the New Jersey Trollmarket

"By Deya's grace! Look at her!" Blink gasped as he held up the squirming toddler in his hands. "She's such a tiny little thing!"

"Tiny, but loud." Notenrique commented as he gagged. "And you do not want to know what sort of smells I've come across when I have to do diaper duty."

It had been a month since Laura was born before Jim and Claire decided to return to the New Jersey Trollmarket. Ever since their return, numerous trolls would come up to the couple to congratulate them and coo over Laura before giving her little trinkets like a strange looking pacifier, stone blocks for her to chew on when she began teething, little stone charms to hang over her cradle for superstitious reasons and at one point a large axe ("So she can begin her training soon!" The troll who gave it to them commented happily.)

"We are so sorry for not bringing her sooner." Jim chuckled as Claire plucked Laura from Blinky's hands. "We had to wait just to be sure she didn't have any allergies and be able to board the plane."

"Well it's good to have you both back, we had to take away Merlin's staff and lock him up just to make sure he didn't try to "bless" the poor child." Blinky replied and frowned. "What sort of wizard does he think he is? He's already turned you into a troll, who knows if his "blessing" might turn the baby into one as well!"

"Oh he better not, I'll bite him if he even tries!" Notenrique growled.

"Here Aaaarrrggh, you wanna hold her?" Claire asked the Kubera troll as she walked over to him.

Aaaarrggh looked at her in surprise before extending his large hand out to her. Claire placed Laura onto his outstretched hand before he brought her close to his chest. Laura gave a tiny yawn and snuggled against his green fur. Aaaarrggh smiled and made a soft purring sound as he carefully cradled in infant human.

"Be careful, she's still very fragile." Jim warned gently before turning to his mentor. "I've been thinking that maybe Claire and I should move out of Trollmarket to avoid Merlin, like maybe live in a house close by."

"Hmm, that would be a good idea but Merlin would insist you stay and try to keep you from leaving. And we all know you need his potions to keep up your humanly appearance."

A few months after they had arrived in New Jersey and found the Heartstone, Merlin had created Jim a special potions that would allow him to turn human for several hours at a time. Jim hardly used the potions since Merlin told him the ingredients in them were rare and difficult to find, he only used them on certain occasions.

"I've been trying to save them up, but I feel like Merlin is just telling me the ingredients are rare just so I won't use them all the time. Newt stomachs, drool from some kind of creature that we can easily find, grinded gnome bones, a lot of them can be easily found!"

"Yes but we need strong magic to make it work. I know Claire knows quite a lot of magic, but I believe there is a certain spell needed and a certain time when you have to make it. And I'm sure Merlin has not taught her that."

Just then, they heard Laura crying loudly. Claire quickly rushed over to pluck her child from Aaaarrrggh and attempt to soothe her. Jim was wondering what had made her cry when Aaaarrrggh started growling at a figure in the doorway of the forge.

"I see you're finally back." Merlin said as he walking in. "And I see you and the Fair Claire brought your offspring back to her rightful home."

"Who let you out?" Notenrique snarled, leaping onto his sister's shoulder. "Take one step towards my niece or-"

"Crush!" Aaaarrrggh growled, making a fist with one hand and punched the open palm of his free hand.

"Leave the child alone Merlin, you've already hurt her parents enough." Blinky said sternly, stepping protectively in front of Claire as Jim walked over to stand at her side. "She does not need any blessings from you after what you've done to her father!"

Merlin frowned. "Did you really think I was going to turn her into a baby troll? Goodness no!" The wizard laughed. "If I had to bless her with anything, it would be with anything her parents wished she would have!"

"She doesn't need a blessing." A familiar voice growled. Jim nearly gave a cry of relief when he saw Draal and Nomura enter the Forge with their welps in their arms.

Nomura approached the wizard, anger buring in her bright green eyes and poked him in the chest with one long nail. "Leave the child alone, or I'll snap that walking stick of yours in half and feed you to those reptiles we caught in the caves."

Merlin narrowed his eyes and for a moment, Jim thought he was going to blast the changeling when Draal growled threateningly.

"Very well, it seems I am not needed. But Trollhunter, I will have to examine your daughter soon to make sure she doesn't start turning into a troll and accidentally kills herself by going into the sunlight." And with that, Merlin walked out of the forge, leaving the group alone.

Claire let out a sigh of relief as a he hugged Laura tightly to her chest. "Oh god, I thought he was going to hurt her."

"If he tried, Draal and Aaaarrrggh would have smashed him into a pancake." Notenrique assured her. "On the bright side, the old wizard is terrified of Draal. After all, the big blue boy nearly crushed him when he found out what he did to Jim."

"Best keep Laura out of Trollmarket for a while." Blinky muttered. "Master Jim could stay down here and visit Claire and the baby at night when they find a home on the surface."

"Let's hope that at least works." Draal grumbled as he shifted one of the welps to his other arm.  "And speaking of welps, I think it's about time my son got to meet the Trollhunter's new offspring."


	3. First Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Laura says her first word

“Come on Laura, say ‘dada’ or ‘mama’, please?” Jim begged as he kneeled in front of his eight-month-old daughter as she gnawed on one of the rubber toys she owned for teething. Laura stopped her gnawing to hold out her toy to her father, a little rubber pink and purple shark that was covered in her drool. Jim gave a small laugh before gently pushing the toy back to her. “No Laura, I can't chew on that. Daddy has big teeth, see?”

Laura let out a gurgle as she tried to reach up to touch her father's tusks before Jim lifted his head up a bit higher, not wanting her to accidentally cut her little fingers. She let out a little protested cry before Jim picked up her blanket that was folded next to him and draped it over his head and horns. He heard Laura stop crying and he gave a little snort.

“Oh no! Where did daddy go?” Jim asked in false panic. “Where's daddy Laura? Where's daddy?” Jim could hear his daughter start to shuffle towards him and held still as her tiny fingers wrapped around the bottom of the blanket and he quickly tossed the blanket off. “Boo!” Laura gave a loud squeal as she toppled backwards onto the pillow she was laying on earlier before she started laughing loudly.

“You found daddy! Yay Laura!” Jim cheered as he leaned forward to sit his daughter up properly. “You found the Trollhunter!”

“Still trying to get her to talk?” Jim heard Claire ask from the doorway of the living room.

“Yeah, but she's having none of it.” The Trollhunter replied as their daughter reached up for her mother.

“Give her time Jim, she's still just a baby.” Claire chuckled as she bent down to pick up the toddler and placed a kiss on her forehead. “She'll talk when she's ready, right Laura?”

“Blinky thought it'd be funny if she started babbling in Troll.”

“Now that'd be hilarious.”

Laura gurgled as she grabbed a strand of her mother's hair that had was loose and gave it a little tug, earning a chuckle from her father and immediately grabbed his finger.

“I'm still in shock that she hadn't turned blue yet.” Jim mumbled as his daughter held onto his pinkie finger with both hands and started to gnaw on it. “Or grew tusks or horns or fur.”

“Well even if she does, we're still going to love her.” Claire replied as Jim nuzzled Laura’s cheek, earning a little giggle as she released his finger and grabbed his nose.

“Oww.” Jim muttered through a plug nose.

“Does this little half troll want to visit her favorite troll relatives?” Claire cooed. Laura’s little blue eyes widened and she started squealing excitedly. “Yes she does! “Yes she does want to see Blinky, Aaaarrrggh, and Notenrique! And maybe if she's lucky she can see a certain blue welp!”

“Look at her getting all excited about seeing some trolls who just live next door.” Jim chuckled as he went to grab Laura’s baby bag. “But she has every right to since they've been pretty busy, especially Aaaarrrggh since he's back in Arcadia with Toby.”

“Well let's hope Blinky isn't too busy to see his favorite student.” Claire joked.

* * *

 

“Well I always try to spare some time to see my ever so curious student!” Blinky laughed while he bounced Laura in his arms as she squealed and giggled. “You should see her when I'm reading to her, she actually pays attention!”

“Well let's hope that she'll apply that same kind of attention when she goes to human school.” Jim chuckled and frowned a bit. “Blinky, has she started talking around you?”

“Hmm? No, I'm afraid not Master Jim. If by speaking, you mean babbling, she does that a lot.”

“He really wants to know if Laura started talking.” Claire explained. “We speak both English, Spanish and Troll around her, but she hasn't said anything yet. This is sort of the age where babies start saying their first words or even walking.”

"She hasn't, though I've seen her babbling rapidly around the gnomes.” Blinky answered as he waved one of his free hands in front Laura as she tried grabbing them.

“Ah...ah…” The three adults eyes widened in shock as Laura kept uttering “Ah…”

“What's she saying?” Blinky asked as he held up the toddler.

“Blinky, I think she's trying to say her first word!” Jim exclaimed.

Blinky gave a loud gasp and held up Laura. “You can do it Laura! You can say it! Say what you need to say!”

Laura opened her little mouth before closing it and opening it again. “Ah...aaahh!”

“She just...screamed.” Blinky muttered, disappointment lacing his voice. “Oh well…”

“Aahh! Aahh!” Laura screeched, waving her little arms as she tried reaching for her mother.

“Maybe she's trying to say ‘Agate’?” Claire suggested as she took her child from Blinky.

“Maybe,” Jim murmured and lowered himself to be level with his daughter. “Are you trying to say your best friend in the whole world's name?”

“Aaah! Aaaaah!” Laura yelled, waving her arms, her little blue eyes staring right past her father. Jim glanced back to see what she was looking at and his eyes widened in realization at what she was saying.

“Guys, she...she's calling to him!” Jim exclaimed as Aaaarrrggh came into the library.

“Aaaaah! Aaaah!” Laura shrieked happily as the Kubera troll walked over to the group and gave her a large smile.

“Hi.” He greeted as Laura reached out for him.

“Aaaarrrggh! You've arrived just in time!” Blinky exclaimed happily. “Laura had just said her first word and it was your name!”

“Really?” Aaaarrrggh asked in surprise as Claire handed him Laura to hold in his palm.

“Aaaah! Aaaaah!” Laura yelled happily and Aaaarrrggh smiled.

“Isn't it adorable?” Blinky whispered as Aaaarrrggh sat down on the floor of the library while cradling Laura to his chest the way he used to when she was younger. “Who would have thought her first word was an attempt to say Aaaarrrggh’s name?”

“No one did, but I'm still happy that her first word was of someone she knew and loved very much.” Jim whispered back as he wrapped an arm around Claire’s waist.

“Yeah, I actually caught Jim whispering ‘crispy’ to her very loudly a few times. At least her first word wasn't that.” Claire added while looking up at her husband with a frown on her lips.

“Oh come on, she just liked it when I whispered it to her because she'd laugh at the faces I made while saying it!” Jim protested.

“It's a cursed word!”

“Laura doesn't think so.”

“Laura isn't even a year old! She still thinks Notenrique is a cat!”

“...good point…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally I was going to make her first word "bushigal", which is Troll is for "bullshit" (Draal says this in the third episode) but then I debated on using that word or using the word "crispy" as her first word because why not XD  
> But it was thanks to my sister that laura's first word was the name of her favorite troll(grandpa? Uncle? Idk if Laura would see Blinky or Aaaarrggh as grandfathers bur I know for sure she'd call Notenrique and Draal her uncles)


	4. Plastic Eater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Careful what you do in front of your child Jimbo

“I'm feeling hungry again.” Jim muttered to himself as he began to open some drawers in the kitchen for something to at least snack on before dinner.

Finding the drawer of silverware, Jim began to sort through the forks, knives and spoons for at least one that looked dented or even rusty that he was sure Claire would overlook. He managed to find one fork that was missing a prong for god knows what reason and grinned to himself before taking a bite.

“Papá?” Jim stopped chewing and slowly turned around to find Laura standing a few feet from him, her little blue eyes wide in shock and staring at the fork in his hand.

“Don't tell mommy...please?” Jim begged, lowering his voice to a whisper and placed a finger to his lips. “Shhhh, okay?”

Laura nodded, pressing a little finger to her lips and making shushing noises before scurrying out of the kitchen as fast as her little legs could take her. Jim looked at the remaining chewed fork before taking a few more bites of it and chewing it a bit before swallowing.

×××××××××××××××××

“Laura, why aren't you eating?” Claire asked before spooning another spoonful of broth into her mouth and swallowed. “You love my albóndigas, and you haven't even touched a single one!”

Laura's attention was fixated on her father chewing on some scrap metal bits he managed to find who knows where.

“Laura, please eat. Your mother made it especially for you.” Jim said, stopping his chewing to swallow the metal. “Please? I can't eat it for you.”

“No!” Laura yelled, flipping her bowl over and spilling warm and slightly oily broth with some vegetables and meatballs onto the small table of her highchair. Claire immediately leapt to her feet, the rag she always kept on her lap during meals to wipe up any spills swiping up the broth before it dropped to the floor and onto Laura’s legs.

“¿Qué te pasa Laura?” Claire yelled as she swiped up the spills and started to move the meatballs to the bowl. “You loved my meatball soup! What's gotten into- LAURA!”

Laura was trying to chew on her own plastic spoon, bending it every which way with her little mouth to break it until Claire pried her little fingers and forced her mouth open to remove it.

“Laura you don't do that!” Jim scolded as Laura started crying, quite angry that her spoon was taken away.

“Oh my god she left teeth marks on it!” Claire exclaimed, shoving the spoon in his face to show him the little marks.

“Wow...and she's barely a year and a half.” Jim muttered, very surprised that how own daughter had the jaw strength to make marks on plastic. “Guess that's what happens when she's a quarter troll.”

“Laura who told you it was okay to chew on plastic spoons?” Claire asked with a frown. “This isn't good, you could have choked or hurt yourself badly!”

Laura stopped crying and looked at her mother in alarm. “No tell.” She stated.

“And why not?”

“Papá.”

Jim stiffened at his daughter's accusation as she pointed a little chubby finger at him. Claire’s eyes narrowed and muttered something that Jim swore it was “Of course” and he gave her a sheepish smile.

“Uh...¿fue un accidente?” Jim replied and gave a nervous laugh.

“Ambonigas!” Laura yelled, grabbing one of the meatballs that hadn't fell to the floor and started to nibble on it. Claire gave a small groan as she moved the untouched meatballs into Laura’s bowl and placed it in front of Laura to let her eat them.

“This child I swear.” She muttered as she sat back down on her chair to watch Laura eat.

Jim looked down at the scrap metal he was eating before placing it back on the plate and pushing it back. The idea that Laura was able to chew on plastic and leave some marks on it with her little teeth was rather unnerving, and he was starting to wonder if Laura was really going to be like him. Unable to eat her mom's cooking, suddenly growing very thick hair and having stone blue skin and unable to be in the sun.

“You know...if she can leave bite marks on plastic, do you think she's going to end up like me?” Jim asked, breaking the awkward silence.

Claire lifted her head to look at her husband in worry before reaching forward to touch his hand.“Jim, if she's anything like you-”

“I don't want her to be like me Claire, it's unfair to her!” Jim exclaimed, slamming his fist on the table. “Merlin doesn't have enough of that potion for me and I'm only using what I've been given for certain, like taking Laura to the park during the day so she can play with the other human kids! I don't want to have her go through what I'm going! I want to give her a normal life, one I wasn't able to have after picking up that amulet and stepping into that potion!”

“Jim we're living in underground for crying out loud! And nothing in Laura’s life has been normal!” Claire retorted angrily before she gave him a sad look. “Look, I know it's been hard for you since...since what happened, and nothing that happened in Laura’s life is exactly normal. She's got a trolls for family but she loves them nevertheless, her best friend is a troll and they love each other very much, and she has you for a father. Despite your blue stone skin, tusks, weird eating habits, Laura still loves you and isn't afraid of you. If anything, I think she wants to be like you Jim.”

Jim shuddered at the thought of his daughter being like him before his wife placed her hand on his hand, the one with the four troll fingers.

“And by that, she wants to be like her dad who's a hero; a strong, brave and great hero who can cook way better than me.”

“You're not as bad as my mom Claire.” Jim laughed and gave her hand a small squeeze. “But...I guess it wouldn't be bad if Laura wants to be like me, just as long as she doesn't try to give herself blue skin or eat things that aren't food.”

“Yuck!” Laura gagged, her mouth and hands covered with the juice from the meatball. Her parents laughed as Jim reached over to clean her face and little hands with a napkin. Laura reached up and latched one of her hands onto one of his tusks and her other hand gripped his upper lip. “Papá!” She giggled and Jim smiled.

“My little troll.” Jim murmured

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you lived or grew up in a Hispanic or Mexican household like me you'll know what albóndigas are. And for those who don't know what they are, they're meatballs bade of ground beef with rice, eggs and spices mixed into the meat and rolled into little balls the size of your palm and tossed into a pot of boiling water to cook them and some vegetables are later added to the water with some powder to act as a broth


	5. Little Warriors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Draal tries to teach his son to sword fight but ends up teaching Laura instead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello and thank you for being patient! I amount sorry I haven't updated in a while, I've recently gotten a new phone and recently realized I wasn't logged into my AO3 account
> 
> Anyways, on with the story!

“But daddy! I don't wanna train with swords!”

Draal mentally groaned, knowing full well how this argument was going to play out with his son. Lately Agate didn't want to do any combat training, preferring to spend those hours in Blinky's library or in the museum with his mother. Draal was now starting to think that his son was definitely not going to be a fighter, and if he wasn't one how was Agate going to be able to protect Laura?

“Agate, you know that if you don't know the basics of fighting, you won't be able to protect Laura?” Draal asked, kneeling down to be level with his son. “How are you going to keep her safe? You don't know how to use magic.”

“But I don't like hurting others.” Agate points out.

“You know, Aaaarrrgggh used to be a pacifist until he decided fighting to protect his friends was a good idea. Maybe you don't have to be a fighter, but you can at least learn to wield a sword or tuck and roll to attack your enemies properly.”

“I can tuck and roll! Watch!”

Agate curled his little legs to his chest, shoving his feet into his mother before rolling himself into a little ball and began to roll around his father.

Draal chuckled softly as Agate rolled to a stop and unclurled himself. “Well that's at least good, but you can learn to use it to throw yourself at your enemies.”

“Like a bowling ball?” Agate asked, realling the large and heavy ball he and Laura once found that Toby happily showed them how it worked by using it to knock over several pins.

“Eh...I guess?” Draal shrugged.

“Agate!” Both trolls turned to see Laura running into the forge, still dressed in her school uniform as she ran towards her friend.

“Laura!” Agate squealed excitedly, running over to Laura to get her in a big hug. “You're back!”

“I hate human school!” Laura said and pouted. “I rather be here learning cooler things!”

“It's only the first day of first grade and you're already complaining.” Claire laughed as she entered the Forge, holding a small purple backpack in one hand and Laura's jacket in the other. “Draal, do you mind looking after Laura? I don't want her to be around Merlin when he's performing potion experiments and accidentally drops something on Laura or leaves something lying around for her to grab.”

“Gladly, I was just trying to teach Agate how to fight properly.” Drall replied with a nod.

“Alright, just don't let her pick up anything too heavy. Jim almost had a heart attack the other day when she accidentally nicked herself on one of Strickler's knives that he keeps on his cape.”

“I'm still okay!” Laura groaned, showing Agate the small and thin cut on her palm. “Daddy started yelling while grandma tried to clean it off.”

“I'd ask why he had those knives but I'm not going to.” Draal muttered as he walked to the small board where he had some weapons laid out. “Alright, normally I don't do this, but because your mother asked me not to use sharp items we're going to be using wooden swords.”

“I have a wooden sword at home!” Laura yelled. “It looks like my daddy's sword and he showed me how to swing it properly!”

“Alright then, show me.” Laura moved her feet into a fighting stance and placed her hands together as if she was holding a sword. Drall nodded,a bit pleased. “Good, you know how to hold it. Here, take this and show me how to swing it properly.”

Laura eagerly accepted the wooden sword that looked similar to her father's. The second her little hands gripped the wooden handle, she began to swing and jab it expertly. Draal hummed in approval while Agate watched in awe.

“How's that?” Laura asked lowering her sword.

“Very good, I wasn't expecting a young human welp like yourself to be able to swing a sword like that.” Draal commented and patted her head. “You still have plenty of room for improvement, and perhaps one day you'll be able to wield a real sword like a real troll hero!”

* * *

“Laura! It's time to go home!” Jim yelled as he entered the forge.

He was met with the sound of wood smacking against something wooden and caught sight of Laura and Agate sparring with Draal and several trolls watching them as a few cheered them on or yelled fighting tips at each child. Agate was leaping back every time Laura swung her wooden blade and managed to whack him over the head with it, earning a startled yelp from both of them when it broke.

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry!” Laura yelled as a few trolls laughed. “I didn't mean to break it!”

“Laura that's replaceable.” Jim laughed as he made his way over to his daughter. Laura immediately latched onto her father's leg while Agate scurried over to his father and hung onto his metal arm.

“Well it looks like the Trollhunter finally decided to grace is with his presence!” Draal laughed as he lumbered over to Jim and clapped him on the shoulder. “Slept well during the day?”

“As well as I could, still not used to the time change.” Jim chuckled as he bent over to pick up Laura. “Aw come on Laura, you got your uniform dirty again!”

“So?” Laura asked as her father tried wiping off the dirt stains off the skirt.

“So? Mommy is not going to be happy if she sees you dirty, we better get you home and get this washed.”

“But I wanna play with Agate some more!” Laura whined. “It's not fair! I hardly see him on the school week!”

“I know, but you have school tomorrow.” Jim sighed as he turned to walk her out of the forge. “Mommy and I want you to at least have a proper education, I had to quit going to high school because I couldn't attend during the day. We want you to at least have some human friends.”

“I don't need more human friends, I've got Isaac, Steven and Phillipa!” Laura pouted. “And Agate is my best friend of them!”

“I know, but we want you to at least make some new friends since you didn't have any in New Jersey.”

“They were mean anyways.”

Jim knew what she meant. Back in the preschool Claire had enrolled her in, Laura stood out like a sore thumb among the other children. She didn't want to play with dolls, and if she did play with them the other girls would get mad when Laura tried using a girl doll to be the hero instead of a boy doll. She would literally fight with the boys for the plastic or foam swords and got mad when they told her she couldn't play with them for ridiculous reasons, the teachers grew concerned when they'd see her just sitting in the corner of the playground or the classroom by herself. This went on until Jim decided to move his wife and daughter to Arcadia, where he knew Laura would be more accepted.

And she was accepted. The teachers who had witnessed the battle against Gunmar and Morgana were happy to have her in their class, asked her to share what was it like living with trolls, what her knowledge of trolls was like and so forth. And best of all, Jim's friends children were also in Laura's class. Laura would come home happy and telling her parents that she got to play “Trollhunters”, a game where she and a group of children would grab sticks and pretend to fight evil trolls. And if Jim and Claire were away on a mission with Toby, Laura would stay with either of her grandparents.

“Are you happy that we moved to Arizona?” Jim asked his daughter as they made their way out of Troll Market and started to walk up the new crystal stairway.

“I get to see grandma Baba and Granda and my tios and tias.” Laura replied, nodding happily. “And I get to see Isaac, Steven and Phillipa more too!”

“That's good.” Jim chuckled as they walked up. “You know, you're lucky to have so many friends and family. All I had at your age was your grandma.”

“And you have me and mommy now!” Laura giggled and Jim smiled.

“Yep, I've got a new family and you.” Jim said and rubbed noses with his daughter. “My little Laura, my little warrior. And I couldn't be more happy.”


	6. Ready To Be A Big Sister?

“When is mommy coming home?” Laura asked her uncle as she was being tucked into bed. “I got really scared when she nearly fell and started yelling about the baby.”

“Don't worry, your mom is fine.” Enrique assured her and gently placed a kiss on her forehead. “Besides, I believe your hermanito is coming soon.”

“Daddy is worried how he's gonna look.” Laura commented, thinking back to how her father babbled on and on how worried he was of how her unborn baby brother was going to look, and even she was a bit worried.

Her parents had been worried about her when she was born, like if she was going to be able to live like a human or if she had to live in the darkness like a troll. Though she was lucky to be born with more human qualities, would her baby brother be just as lucky?

“Laura, go to sleep, you've got school tomorrow!” Laura heard her grandfather Javier yell from downstairs. “And you too Enrique!”

“Sleep well squirt.” Enrique whispered and ruffled her bangs before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.

As soon as she was sure everyone in the house was asleep, Laura carefully crept out of the bed and reached under it to grab her overnight bag. Inside were her clothes, her school uniform and the small phone she was given by her parents for emergencies. She carefully dialed in her father's number and crawled back into the bed and pulled the covers over head before hitting the call button. The phone rang a few times before she heard her father's voice.

“Hello?”

“Papi?”

“Laura? It's almost ten, what are you doing awake?” Jim asked. Laura could hear the noises of trolls in the background, signifying that her father was in Trollmarket

“I wanted to know how mama was.” Laura replied quietly. “Is the baby okay?”

“I don't know, she's at the hospital but I'm heading over there right now. And I'm sorry I can't take you with me, you know what grandma Barbara said.”

“I'm not sick though.” Laura muttered, remembering what her grandmother told her when she begged to stay at the hospital so her mother wouldn't be alone.

“It's just a precaution Laura, and you have school tomorrow as well, so get some sleep.” Jim reminded her. “I'll see you in the morning, okay? I love you.”

“I love you too papi.” Laura said softly before hearing her phone beep, signifying that the call had ended. She tucked the phone under the pillow before laying back down to sleep. 'Please let Mami and my hermanito be okay…’

* * *

 

“Oh good news! Your baby brother was born!” Ophelia cooed as Laura was holding still to let her grandfather braid her hair.

“Really? What time?” Javier asked as he tied the small braid off.

“At three in the morning, and his name is...Jimmy Lake Junior Junior?”

Laura giggled, remember how her father jokingly told her they were going to give her baby brother that name that was meant for a sack of flour he and her mother were raising in high school for a project. Of course she knew he was actually going to be named Jim Lake the Third.

“Can I see? Did mani send a picture?” She asked her grandmother.

“Here, they sent one.” Laura eagerly took her grandmother's phone and tapped on the photo her mother sent. The picture showed her mother laying in a hospital bed cradling a small blue bundle with her father next to the bed with his arm stretched out, showing he was the one to take the photo. The next picture showed her baby brother, a tiny wrinkled baby boy with dark hair and his little face pressed close to their mother's chest with his little hands curled into fists.

“He's so wrinkly!” Laura giggled as she handed Ophelia back the phone. “And he looks like mami too!”

“Yes he does, he's got the Nuñez face.” Enrique commented with a from the kitchen.

“Can I see him before I got to school? Please abuela?” Laura begged as her grandmother handed her her backpack and lunch bag.

“Oh no, we have to get you to school little lady.” Ophelia replied as she grabbed her phone from the coffee table and her keys as well. “But I promise after school we'll take you, okay?”

“Fine…” Laura muttered, dragging her feet to the door before she gave a squeal of surprise as Javier scooped her up and placed her on his shoulders.

The whole day Laura could barely concentrate in class. Twice she got scolded by the teacher for being distracted and bouncing in her seat too much, waiting for the dismissal bell to ring so she could finally leave and run home to see her family. When the bell finally rang, Laura literally burst out of the classroom, nearly forgetting her backpack and lunch bag, before running out of the school and into her grandfather's legs and nearly knocked him over. The drive home felt like it lasted for hours until they arrived to find her mother's car outside in the driveway.

“Mami mami mami mami mami!” Laura screamed as she jumped out of the car and ran up to the door of the house. “Open open!”

“Whoa slow down!” Javier laughed as he unlocked the front door of the house to let her run in. Laura threw her backpack onto the couch and ran into the kitchen to find the windows covered and the kitchen lights on, meaning her father must have been inside the house as well.

“Mami! Papi!” Laura yelled before she heard everyone in the kitchen hiss “SHHHHHHH!” and fell quiet.

“Hey firecracker.” Jim greeted with a soft laugh as he knelt down to let his daughter run into his arms. “Guess who got to come home early?”

“Mami and Jimmy!” Laura exclaimed as quietly as she could. “I wanna see the baby!”

“He's right here mija, safe and sound.” Claire chuckled as she got up from the table, carrying a tiny blue bundle in her arms.

The baby didn't look as wrinkled as he did in the photo she saw earlier in the morning, but she could see his skin looked tinted blue. Was that normal for babies?

“Why is he blue?” Laura asked her mother in a hushed tone.

“Ah, that's daddy's fault.” Claire replied, casting her husband a look, and he gave her a sheepish smile. “He’s blue so...it's daddy's fault.”

“Was I blue when I was a baby?”

“No, you had normal skin. However, you did start teething early like a troll.”

“Jimmy doesn't look like a troll though.”

“And let's hope he doesn't get the troll quality of getting burned by the sun and getting turned to stone.” Jim muttered. “If he does I swear I'm going to knock Merlin unconscious unless he makes something to fix it.”

“Can I help deck him?” Laura asked, already giggling at the thought of her and her father knocking the old wizard off his feet.

“No one is decking a wizard.” Claire scolded. “At least not yet, meaning if he tried doing something to the baby like blessing him and it does something terrible to his body.”

“Then don't let him bless him, let the trolls do that.” Enrique commented from the table. “Of course he won't try to bless the baby, you saw how Trollmarket got when he attempted to bless Laura when she turned a year old.”

“Why do we keep him around again?” Jim asked with a frown.

“Because I still need to learn magic, and I still don't know all the ingredients for the human potion you need for certain occasions.” Claire pointed out as the baby started to fuss. “Now if you excuse me, I have a little troll who soiled his diaper.”

“And it's gonna get worse when he get older.” Jim muttered before seating himself at the table next to his brother-in-law. “Did Laura behave herself last night?”

“I gave no problems.” Laura assured him as she climbed into his lap, earning a groan from the chair.

“You're getting heavy, we need to exercise you more.” Jim chuckled and ruffled her hair. “So are you ready to have the responsibility of being a big sister?”

“Fully ready!” Laura giggled and punched the air with her small fist.

“Good because you'll get to change diapers.”

“Eww papi! Gross!”


	7. 7. Get Schooled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Mess with my kid? Well now you have to deal with me." -Jim (at some point during his time as a father)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I noticed a lot of my chapters revolve around Laura, but hardly have anything to do with Jim, so a lot of the chapters are going to have a lot more Jim in them

“I am so glad they're doing this in the evening, and I'm glad I get a night off.” Jim said with a sigh as he opened the passenger door to let Laura out. “Never thought I'd be happy to do Teacher-Parent night.”

“It's a great opportunity for you to meet the teacher, especially since he's new to the town.” Claire said as she got out of the driver's seat and moved to the back to retrieve Jimmy while Jim struggled to get the stroller out of the trunk. “Do you need help with that?”

“Nope! I've got it!” Jim assured her as he continued to struggle to pull the stroller out until Claire lifted the top of the trunk a bit higher to allow him to remove it.

“Sure you do hun, sure.” She muttered as she placed the wide awake infant into the stroller. “Come on, we've got a teacher to meet.”

They walked into the elementary school, being greeted by one of Jim's old teachers who was teaching the fifth grade instead of kindergarten, greeting other parents and their children before arriving to the second grade classrooms. Of course the moment they were going to walk in, Jimmy proceeded to fuss, resulting in Jim hanging back to calm him down and assuring his wife he'd come in once the baby wasn't being fussy anymore.

Jim waited outside the classroom as he gently rocked his son to stop him from crying after checking if he was hungry or soiled himself. He could hear the teacher inside talking about what the students have been doing so far in their new school year, like the family tree project they were still working on and starting up on social studies. This was the second grade why did they need to learn this so soon? Thankfully, Jimmy stopped fussing near the end of the teacher's speech to allow him to duck into the classroom to find the parents and their children milling around and looking at their pinned up assignments.

“Papi!” Laura yelled from the art corner, waving her little arms in the air frantically to call him over. Jim hurried over, squeezing between parents till he reached his daughter. “Mami wants you to meet the teacher.”

“The red haired man talking to your mom?” Jim asked, gesturing to the said man who was talking to Claire. He didn't look that old, possibly in his early twenties and dressed like an old college professor. Geez not even the oldest high school teachers like Strickler dressed like that.

“Yeah, Mr. Fuvor, and he told Mami during a meeting I lied a lot in class.” Laura stated as she pulled her father to her mother.

“Lied?”

“About you being trolls and hunting pixies with Agate and Steven!”

Now Jim was feeling a bit enraged. How dare this second grade teacher, who had not even been in Arcadia for more than a month accuse his daughter of being a liar about things she and all the other children in the class knew were true?

“Excuse me!” Jim yelled as he stormed right up to the teacher and quickly thrust Jimmy into Claire's arms before placing his hands on his hips and leaned down to look at the man. “What is this that I'm hearing about you accusing my daughter about lying in class?”

“I-I assume you're Mr. Lake!” The man sputtered and glanced at Laura. “I-I see Laura wasn't joking about her father being a-”

“Earlier this week my wife told me that you claimed to be having problems with Laura and the other children, why is that?”

“Uh w-well you see at first I thought Laura was joking about her family being trolls, b-but then it escalated to her writing an entire essay on her summer break in some strange scribbles and saying she went pixie hunting and blurting out in social studies that trolls came to the New World the same time as the pilgrims and-”

“First off the 'scribbles’ on her essay is an ancient language.” Jim interrupted and pinched the bridge of his nose. “And yes trolls did come on the Mayflower, seriously who hired you to sub these kids? Don't you know anything about this town?”

“N-no I was just hired to sub for the p-previous teacher until she gets off maternity leave!” Mr. Fuvor stuttered as he wrung his hands nervously. “I wasn't expecting the children to be saying such bizarre things!”

“They’re not bizarre and they are not lies!” Claire pointed out as she put Jimmy into his stroller. “As you can see, my husband is a troll like my daughter said. I'm sure when Show and Tell comes around this Friday she can bring a little something from Trollmarket.”

“Ooh can I bring grandpa Walt?” Laura asked excitedly, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “Please??? Or uncle Notenrique?”

“Anything that's not going to kill anyone.”

“Some teacher.” Jim heard one of the parents mutter. “Heck even we know about the trolls and we moved to Arcadia before our son was born!”

“This class needs to learn more of troll culture!” A parent from the back of the room yelled, and much to Jim's joy it was Steve. “We learned this stuff in high school because one of our teachers was a troll! It's not fair that our kids have to wait this long to learn it!”

“You teach it papi!” Laura suggested. “Uncle Blinky can't do it, but you can!” Oh troll gods help him.

“Well I'm...I'm not as educated as Blinky, I mean it's required because I'm the Trollhunter.” Jim tried to explain as some parents looked to him. “Look I barely have time during the day because I have my duties at night but-”

“You can use the amulet.” Claire pointed out. “Vendel did tell you there was a stone to allow you to walk in the sunlight, remember?”

“And we've got large umbrellas! Remember when Eli and I helped bring trolls to the forest using giant umbrellas?” Steve added, making his way to the front. “You can use that, if the potion stuff that old man is taking soooo long to make won't cut it.”

“I... I'll think about it. In the meantime though,” Jim turned back to the teacher with an annoyed expression. “No one, and I mean no one, calls my daughter a liar especially when she's telling the truth. Next time I hear her tell me she was called a liar, I will have you reported you to the principal about it.”

“I suggest you take classes to avoid this.” One parent whispered to Mr. Fuvor quietly. “They hold classes to teach adults more on the world of trolls, next class is Friday.”

“Keeping that in mind…” Mr. Fuvor mumbled as he watched the Lake family exit. Of course, once his wife and children were out the door, Jim turned towards the teacher with narrowed eyes and made the “I'm watching you” gesture before ducking to avoid the doorway and walked out.


	8. Feeling Blue

“JIM! THE BABY IS BLUE!” Jim snapped awake at the sound of his wife's panicked yells from the nursery. He threw back the covers and practically leapt out of the bed with his phone in hand, prepared to call his mother. Was his son choking on something? Was he having trouble breathing? So many questions went through his mind as he burst out of the room to run down the hall towards his son's nursery. Laura had opened the door of her room rubbing the sleepiness from her eyes and trying to smooth her messy hair.

“Papi? What's wrong?” She asked as he slowed down to approach the nursery door.

“Jim!”

“I'm coming Claire!” Jim quickly threw the door open to find his wife holding Jimmy and he was… giggling? What in the world?

“He's turning blue, look at him!” Claire yelled, shoving the toddler towards her husband.

Indeed the baby's skin was looking a bit more blue that it normally was. When Jimmy was born his skin had a strange blue tint that not even his grandmother or Blinky could explain to the bewildered parents. Jim had assumed it was just the light, but as time progressed, the baby looked a little more blue than usual. And now today of all days he looked like someone dropped him in a container of soft blue paint.

“Gosh look at him! He's literally turning into a troll!” Claire groaned as she pulled Jimmy's fingers out of his mouth. “First the thicker hair that started growing on his neck and now the skin! Next thing we know his ears and teeth are growing in like a troll!”

“It's uh...not bad?” Jim tried to assured her as he took his son into his arms. “I mean he can still be in sunlight, right?”

“For now, who knows if his condition is going to look like yours!” Claire moaned and covered her face. “We worried so much with Laura-”

“Who is perfectly fine.”

“-but now Jimmy isn't going to be able to live like a normal kid! He's not going to be able to play outdoors with the other kids!”

Jim could see why she was so worried. For months they worried about how Laura was going to be even before she came out of the womb. No matter how many times his mother showed them on the ultrasound that Laura looked perfectly human, they always worried the troll features (unable to eat human food, unable to walk in sunlight, horns, tusks, a possible tail or extra limbs) would come along as she got older. Only trollish feature Laura seemed to have so far was the ability to leave teeth marks on plastic spoons, otherwise she was a perfectly normal child.

“You're going to be fine, I know it.” Jim murmured to his son as he tried grabbing at his bottom lip with his chubby little hands. “Sure you now have blue skin like mine and a scruff on the back of your neck, but you're perfectly fine! Mommy is just very worried right now.”

“We have to see Blinky, like tonight!” Claire said taking her husband's phone and punching in his mentor's number. “I am not letting my son scum to the life you are forced to now live! And I will not have Merlin experimenting on him either!”

“He's not going to touch him, I'll make sure of it.” Jim assured her as the phone rang. “Look, Jimmy is fine so far and he's still drinking milk like a normal baby. He even likes his mashed veggies too!”

“Yeah but for how long? How long can this last?” Claire asked, not even noticing Laura enter the room in her school uniform.

“I'm gonna be late Mami.” She announced, earning a startled yelp from Claire.

“Good Lord don't do that Laura!” Claire groaned. “Okay, go eat breakfast-”

“Did that.”

“-brush your hair and teeth-”

“Did that too.”

“Then wait downstairs for me!”

“I'll do that then. Bye Papi!”

“Bye, behave yourself.” Jim said with a wave and chuckled. “Man she's fast, and who knew she could sneak up on a sorceress!”

“Oh hush you!” Claire scolded and swatted his arm. “Please put the baby back to sleep, I have to head to work after dropping off Laura.”

“Fine, Jimmy and I get to have quality time then.” Jim said as the said baby cooed. “Yes we're gonna have some Daddy and Me time today cuz I've got no work tonight!”

Once Claire and Laura had left, Jim made sure all the windows were covered to keep the sun from coming in before he laid out a blanket with numerous toys for Jimmy. While the baby was grabbing at every little toy on the blanket, Jim was busy reading books on troll history to create a lesson plan for Laura's class. As he was doing so, he heard his phone give a small buzz.

“Well this is surprising.” He muttered as he turned his phone on to see it was a message from Notenrique. The message had a photo attached to it with the caption “best show and tell ever” in the text.

The photo showed Laura at her desk with some other students with Notenrique perched at the edge of the desk with a pencil in his mouth. He could see Laura grinning like crazy and waving at the camera with some of her classmates poking their heads into the picture. Guess she went through with bring something “interesting” to class.

“Please tell me the teacher freaked out.” Jim murmured to himself with a small laugh as he replied to the changeling.

[Notenrique]: He most certainly did! Never heard a human man scream like that b4 but it was worth sitting in a backpack for a few hours

Jim laughed to himself, already imagining the poor human's reaction to seeing a small green troll pop out of Laura's bright pink and purple backpack probably yelling something like “hiya kiddies!” to make the children laugh. Laura had mentioned a few weeks before that she wanted to bring Notenrique or Strickler to the classroom to show the teacher more trolls, though he wasn't expecting her to do it so soon after getting scolded by the principal for bringing a gnome (that tore a hole in the classroom bean bag chair) and a goblin (that stole all the whiteboard markers and hid in the supply closet until Laura and Steven managed to coax it out with a peanut butter and cheese sandwich the boy had brought for lunch) for show and tell. At least this one ended well and Laura would bring something harmless into the classroom the next Friday.

“Well your sister certainly had fun today.” Jim said as he picked Jimmy off the floor to sit him on his lap. The baby babbled, a small rubber toy that looked like a troll in his little grasp and covered in drool. “Let's hope you won't be such a handful, mommy is already getting grey hairs.”

After feeding the baby and putting him down for a nap, Jim decided to take one as well since reading and writing notes for that troll history class he was supposed to give his daughter's class every Wednesday made him feel exhausted. The second he laid himself on the couch to take a quick nap, the doorbell rang loudly and Jimmy could be heard crying loudly upstairs.

“I'm coming!” Jim groaned as he reluctantly got off the couch. “I cannot come outside!”

“Jimbo open up! You know I don't have keys to your house!” Jim gave a small sigh of relief, now knowing it was just Toby outside of his house and not one of those annoying salesman trying to sell him something he already had, like a refrigerator or toaster (then again he'd probably take an extra toaster to take it apart and eat it). Jim carefully opened the door, taking care not to let the sun hit him as Toby entered the house and quickly shut the door behind him.

“Hey, how's work?” Jim asked once the door was locked.

“Ah pretty good, though Darcy says I can't bring rock samples into the house anymore.” Toby replied with a shrug and noticed the tired look on his friend's face. “Oh were you sleeping?”

“Nah, I was just gonna take a quick nap after putting Jimmy down.” Jim said, waving his hand in a dismissive manner.

“Well he's awake.” Toby commented, gesturing to the ceiling where they could hear the faint crying of the toddler.

“Oh great...it took me hours to get him to finally sleep!”

“No prob, I know a trick that's worked on Isaac when he was a light sleeper.” Toby assured him, following Jim up the stairs. “A simple position to lay him in your arms and a little song should do it. Worked on Steven too, Steve literally cried when I managed to calm the little dude down and he never woke up at the sound of every creak in the house.”

Once they reached the upstairs bedrooms and reached the nursery, Jim turned to Toby with a Stern expression. “Now Jimmy is going through some changes at the moment, physical changes to be exact, so please do not scream when you see him.”

“What, is he growing a set of tusks nostril or something?” Toby asked making a face. “Jim I know he has always had a blue tint since he popped out of Claire, he's part troll! What am I supposed to expect, a tail?”

“Just don't scream!” Another wail sounded from the other side of the door. “Hang on Jimmy, I'm coming in.”

“Holy cow!” Toby exclaimed when he saw the baby. “Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh Jim he's blue! Like like bluer than normal!”

“Yes, I am very well aware of this.” Jim muttered as he picked the wailing child out of his crib.

“Does Claire know?”

“Yes, she knows. In fact she woke me up yelling to me about it.”

“Dude this...this…” Toby waved his hands towards Jimmy, who stopped crying and was letting out little whimpers. “We cannot let Merlin know! Oh gosh Blinky needs to know about this! A-and Strickler, and your mom!”

“No one is even going to know what to do, not even Merlin!” Jim pointed out as he let his son grab his finger and start to suck on his knuckle. “Also, I don't want to give my mom and Strickler anymore problems, they've already had enough with Zelda getting suspended from school for breaking a textbook on someone.”

“First off, your adopted sister's suspension was weeks ago, she already apologized to the guy even though he provoked her in the first place but he got suspended too so that's a plus.” Toby pointed out. “And second of all, your mom did tell you she'd do everything in her power as a doctor to take care of her grandchildren if anything troll like happens to them, like Jimbo Jr turning blue.”

“I know, I know, but she's got her hands full raising three teenagers, even with Strickler helping her out and adding grandkids to the burden won't be helping.” Jim sighed and looked at his friend sadly. “It's what I've always been trying to do Tobes, making sure that she doesn't have to deal with my problems.”

“Jim, I'm sure she won't mind. Besides, Walt, Zelda and Petra have been making sure to make things easier at home for her like cooking, cleaning the house, reminding her and Strickler of important things they have to do, just like good siblings.”

“I guess I should be glad to have some good siblings like them, would have been nice to have them around when I was younger.” Jim chuckled. “But Zelda and Walt were being cared for by goblins in the Darklands and Petra didn't even exist yet.”

“Now, shall we put Little Boy Blue to sleep?” Toby asked before chuckling. “Aww he fell asleep on his own.”

Jim smiled, looking down to see his son laying against his chest with his little fist close to his mouth. He placed a small kiss on his little forehead before carefully placing Jimmy back into his cradle and placed a blanket over him.

“Know what, I don't think you're going to be a handful. I think you'll be the exact opposite once you get old enough to walk and do things on your own.” Jim murmured as he brushed away strands of his son's hair from his forehead. “You'll be helpful for sure.”

  
  
  


**Get Recked Merlin**

 

“Okay what prank are we gonna do today?” Laura muttered to herself and looked to her friends who were laying sprawled on the ground around her. “Isaac? Any ideas?”

It was finally summer break, school was out and the four kids were both dreading and excited for the start of middle school. Spending the summer indoors playing video games was not an option for them, since Isaac's grandfather shooed them out of the air conditioned house and into the warm outdoors.

“When I was your age we spent the summer outside getting tanned and exercising.” Detective Williams stated when his grandson asked why they couldn't stay indoors for the day.

“I dunno, something that's not illegal.” The pre-teen replied and opened one eyes to look at her. “But something we should try on Merlin without him suspecting us.”

Steven lifted his head from the grass. “You seriously

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I gave Jim three siblings, two who were adopted and the other is his half sister.
> 
> Walt and Zelda are the familiar of Strickler and Nomura, both of who I decided to have Barbara and Strickler raise after all the familiars are rescued from the Darklands by Notenrique and Chompsky


	9. Creephunterz

"I kid you not Blinkous, there's a nest of pixies right in the middle of the woods! I saw it myself when I was out scavenging!”

“Shhh! You must not be so loud about these things!” Blinky hissed and clamped a hand over the babbling troll's mouth with one hand. “Especially when certain whelps might hear about it!”

Blinky glanced over at the table where Laura, Walter, Zelda, Petra, Enrique and Laura's human friends were engrossed in their homework. Isaac, Tobias’ son, had looked up from his work to catch Blinky watching them and gave him a small wave before going back to his work.

“I'll alert the Trollhunter, but since it's daylight we have to wait. You go back to doing something else, I'll handle it.” The six eyes troll assured the nervous troll and ushered him out of the library before walking back to the table where the children and teens were sitting to examine their work.

The two teen girls were doing homework at a different table, quietly comparing notes with each other and answers over math, while their brother was busy typing up what Blinky guessed was an essay for English or some sort of history report while Enrique was flipping through what Blinky guessed was a French textbook.

“Anyone need help with anything?” Walt asked as the three teens stopped what they were doing.

“No sir, we're fine.” Petra assured him, giving him the smile she definitely shared with Laura's father.

“We are almost done here, we can help the kiddies with their homework.” Zelda said twirling a strand of her dark hair between her fingers. “You head off to do your duties, we'll be fine.”

“Alright, I'll leave you all to your work. But I will be coming back to see if you're done and to make sure none of my books get vandalized again by crayons.” Blinky said giving the younger children a look, earning a couple of giggles from them.

Once Blinky was gone, Enrique slammed his textbook shut and dropped it on the table, causing the others to look over at him.

“Do you mind? I'm trying to finish this history essay on Roman battle tactics.” Walter said in annoyance, irritation lacing his voice.

“You heard what Blinky said, right?” The teen asked, ignoring his friend's comment. “Pixies in the forest! And not the cute sparkly ones that sing sweet songs and make flowers bloom.”

“I am fully aware of what pixies that troll was talking about.” Zelda said rolling her eyes and looking back down at her math notes. “And before you say anything, we will not be touching that nest at all. Let Jim handle this, he's handled those sort of pixies before.”

“Also they're not bothering anyone just yet, so leave them be.” Walter added before looking over at the younger children who were doing a very poor job at looking like they weren't trying to eavesdrop. “Same goes for the four of you.”

“You're such a stiff.” Enrique muttered as he picked up his book. “You do know we can help, just plug our ears and noses and hit that nest with a high pressure hose.”

“We're not doing that Enrique, end of story!”

🌫️🌫️🌫️🌫️🌫️

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Isaac asked as he and his three friends marched through the woods. “Blinky said he'd get Laura's daddy to fix it.”

“It's been a week, Papi still hasn't done anything about it.” Laura pointed out. “Not even my Mami has done anything about it, or any of the other Trollhunters. You have the bat, Steven?”

Steven held up the large bat he was carrying, a wide grin on his face. “Can I hit the nest first?”

“No silly, Laura is gonna hit it.” Flip replied, pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose. “Plus she has better sword training too, so she can't miss!”

“But I've had better practice with the bat, wooden swords aren't heavy like baseball bats. Plus it's my dad's bat, and if she breaks it I'm gonna be in trouble!”

“The same bat that squished goblins and may have been used to hit other creeps in the face?” Isaac asked skeptically and Steven nodded in enthusiasm.

“The Creepslayerz bat, used only in emergencies when ya gotta deal with creeps!”

“Pixies aren't creeps.” Laura pointed out. “Pixies are just pixies. And why are you two even wearing helmets? It's not like the pixies are gonna drop rocks on you.”

“A Creepslayer is always prepared.” Steven said hitting the black helmets he and Flip wore on their heads that looked too big for them. “Hey we ought to call ourselves something cool! Like you and Isaac's parents are Trollhunters, my dad and Flip's dad are Creepslayerz, we ought to come up with our own cool gang name!”

“Like a combo of the two names!” Flip suggested excitedly. “Like...TrollCreeperz!”

“Or Trollslayerz!” Steven added before shaking his head. “No sounds wrong.”

“How about Creephunters?” Isaac suggested and Laura nodded. “I think my dad mentioned once that your dad considered all weird things that go bump in the night and anything not really human are creeps.”

“Yeah, yeah that sounds a lot better! We're the Creephunterz with a Z!” Steven yelled before all three of his friends slapped hands over his mouth.

“Shhhh! No one likes loud Creephunter!” Laura scolded before pointing up ahead. “It's just up ahead, ready?”

The others nodded gleefully. “Ready!”

🌫️🌫️🌫️🌫️🌫️

“You found a what now?”

“A pixie nest!”

Steve silently groaned to himself and pinched the bridge of his nose. Of all the things he thought his son would find in the woods and be very fascinated by, he didn't expect it to be a nest of little creatures that would give you hallucinations of all things. Of course Aja's curiosity of strange things that definitely don't belong had to be something their son inherited.

“You didn't touch it, did you? You know that those fly into your nose or ears and make you see weird things.” Steve asked, silently praying that his child hadn't done something stupid.

“I hit it with the baseball bat you used to use as a Creepslayer!” Steven replied happily. “And then we ran into the river to hide from the pixies until we were sure they were gone. Oh and we had ear plugs and nose plugs to prevent them from getting into our bodies!”

Steve sighed in relief. “Good, now eat your dinner, I made sure not to burn it this time.”

“When are mommy and uncle Krel coming back?” Steven asked as he stabbed his fork into his spaghetti and began to twirl it to get some onto the fork.

“I'm not sure. Don't make a mess, Luug isn't here to lick it up.”

“She should be back by now, it's almost the start of summer.”

The two royal Akiridions would always make it a priority to visit Steven and his father, mostly Aja when she wanted to make up lost time with her husband and son since they were literally light-years away from each other. Often she'd come in the summer so she and Steven could play in the park or go to the mall during the day when Steve was working, and later in the evening go somewhere with Steve while Steven stayed with Eli.

“Mommy would be very proud of me, I think I destroyed a handful of pixies!” Steven stated proudly. “Me and my friends made ourselves a new group, just like you guys!”

“Oh? And what do you all call yourselves?”

Steven looked around before motioning for his father to come closer. One Steve was close, Steven softly whispered into his ear, “We're the Creephunterz with a Z. We hunt creeps and take them down with the Trollhunters and Creepslayerz are too busy to do it, fear us!”

Steve softly chuckled before gently ruffling his son's hair. “Ah you little rascal, you're only in the second grade and you're already in a gang dedicated to protecting Arcadia. Now I'm glad you guys did something, but you all could have gotten hurt. You're all too little to do anything crazy like this, so give it a few years with some good training, then you'll be out on the streets with us keeping the bad things at bay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So if anyone is wondering who Petra, Walter and Zelda are, they're basically a part of Jim's family. Walter and Zelda are Nomura and Strickler's familiars who were taken in by Barbara and Strickler to be raised by them. Petra is actually Jim's younger half sister, daughter of Barbara and Strickler.
> 
> They will pop up more in the story, along with Enrique to help guide Laura and her friends, keep an eye on her when it's needed and give her some good guidance as well


	10. Prank of the Century

“I'm bored!” Laura complained loudly. “Summer break barely started and we've got nothing exciting to do!”

Indeed the summer break had recently began for the young preteens, giving them the relief of being free from the sixth grade and becoming middle schoolers, but dreading the day they had to go back to school and deal with more homework from more than one teacher. All four of the young Creephunterz we're laying out on the grass under the shade of the avocado tree growing in Steven's front yard, feeling bored.

“We could...go fishing?” Steven suggested. “At night? And maybe catch fireflies too?”

“My grandpa gave a me curfew, I'm not allowed to be outside past ten without either of my parents.” Isaac pointed out and made a face. “Which is no fun.”

“We could go to the movies.” Flip suggested, as she glanced over at Laura. “Or just go to the library to enjoy some air-conditioning and WiFi.”

“Or...we can do something fun that we can write about when we enter the next grade.” Laura said sitting up and frowned. “But what can we do that doesn't need to involve our parents or any adult?”

“Ooh! How 'bout we do a prank!” Steven shouted, sitting up with an excited look on his face. “And maybe we can record it and put it on the internet, it'll be lively!”

“But who are we going to prank without getting in trouble?” Isaac asked. “Remember when Laura literally got grounded for playing in the Forge with Agate while it was activated?”

“What if...what if we pranked Merlin?” Flip suggested and grinned. Now all of them were sitting up with an interested look. “We definitely can't get in trouble, since a lot of trolls will turn a blind eye on what we are doing.”

“But what sort of prank can we do that he won't see coming?” Isaac asked and the other three kids looked at each other with blank expressions.

“Hey why don't we try the plastic wrap trick? Betcha Merlin never heard of it.” Flip suggested. “Bet he's never seen plastic wrap before, and a lot of people fall for it.”

“You mean the one I did on my dad on April's Fools?” Laura asked, remembering how she, Jimmy and their mother spent hours preparing the prank and waiting for the Trollhunter to wake up to scream at him to come into the kitchen. The three may have found it funny that he ran into the kitchen in a panic, only to slam into a wall of plastic wrap, but Jim did not consider it so funny that he hit the floor quite hard and chipped the corner of one of his horns from the impact.

“Oh, oooh yes! Perfect!” Steven cackled and jumped to his feet. “I gotta get my camera for this! Oh and we should let Agate be in on the prank too!”

“How's he gonna help though?” Flip asked as she and the others rose to their feet to dust off the grass that clung to the backs of their shirts and shorts.

Steven gave her a grin. “Oh you'll see.”

🌫️🌫️🌫️🌫️🌫️

“He'll never see it coming!” Agate whispered as he tried standing on the tips of his toes to lift Laura a bit more higher. “Is that better Laura?”

“Perfect! And I'm all done too!” Laura exclaimed as he carefully brought her down and set her back gently onto the ground. “Good thing Rot and Guts had some of that magical tape too!”

Earlier the five children had stopped by several shops looking for some sort of clear glue or tape to hold up the plastic since they didn't want to arouse any suspicion from their parents about big amounts of glue or tape disappearing around the house. Lots of trolls had empty tape dispensers, or empty bottles of glue, but only two shops had what they were looking for. Bagdwella, who for some reason had lots of clear plastic wrap that she was happy to give to them.

“If anyone asks, you five never got this from my shop.” The female troll snickered as handed them the boxes. “Best of luck little hunters!”

And Rot and Guts for some reason also had a very large tape dispenser that had tape that was so strong, not even Daylight could cut it.

“We don't even know why, but the only thing that can cut it is the little metal thing.” One of the two giant trolls told them as the kids handed them a bag of very smelly socks to trade.

“Believe me, the Trollhunter even tried to cut it once and it got all tangled on his sword!” The other troll added. “It's very strong, strong enough to act like a giant spider web!”

Several trolls had seen them setting up their prank, a few even asked what they were doing, and once the kids told them the trolls either laughed or nodded and gave them a wink before walking off as if they didn't see anything. A good thing that the trolls were on their side for the prank, meaning no one was going to be snitching on them if Merlin demanded to know who set the prank up. Steven had his camera set up where he was hiding, a large and empty barrel where no one could see him whilst he recorded the whole thing.

“Alright, ready everyone?” Flip asked and the others nodded. “Steven, you got the camera rolling?”

“Rolling and recording!” Steven called from his hiding spot. “Everyone to their places!”

The four children and troll scrambled to their reserved spots, Laura and Agate standing near the doorway of Merlin's chambers, Flip hidden behind some empty crates with another camera out so they could have a better view of the prank where she was at, and Isaac hiding a few feet from Steven next to a large ceramic jug.

After a few minutes a familiar armored clad man came into view with a glowing staff in hand, quietly humming to himself. The children stifled their giggles before Laura and Agate jumped from their spots to run over to the old wizard.

“Merlin! Merlin come quick! A bunch of gnomes got into your chambers!” Laura yelled as she and her friend reached the wizard.

“They're destroying everything in there!” Agate yelled frantically. “I think they even pooped in your potions!”

“What?! Blasted little horned creatures!” Merlin yelled angrily as a few gnomes the children had planted in the chamber came running out cackling and chittering gleefully with what looked like small trinkets and glass vials in their hands before running off in different directions. “You'll be garden statues by the time I'm done with you little thieves!”

Merlin ran right for his chambers, but the second he got close to the entrance, he slammed right into the thick plastic wrap and fell right to the ground with a loud thud. The children burst out laughing, as did some trolls who were watching the whole thing as the old wizard fell on his rear. Merlin sat up with a stunned look on his face before looking over at Laura and Agate, who were literally on the ground laughing so hard tears were falling from their eyes.

“You insolent children!” He barks, getting to his feet as Isaac and Flip crawl out from their hiding places. “You will be punished!”

Agate and Laura quickly stop laughing when they saw the furious expression on the old man's face, seeing how serious he was.

“Run for it!” Agate yelled, talking off down the street and curled himself into a ball to roll off.

“No fair!” Laura yelled as she ran after him with Isaac and Flip behind her with Merlin yelling after them.

“I stole his staff!” Flip shrieked loudly, holding up the magical staff she had snatched that had fallen from Merlin's grasp. “He can't hurt us now!”

“We are so busted!” Isaac screamed as he leapt over a crate that was in the way. “Time to put that parkour to use now guys!”

The three children took the opportunity to leap over any object that stood in the way with ease, putting their agility that Nomura had been teaching them to use to be able to dodge any sort of attacks, tossing the staff to each other along the way. Trolls immediately moved out of the way when they heard the children come rushing down the streets and going back to their original places the second they passed to block Merlin, who was still yelling at them.

“Quick! To the Forge!” Isaac yelled as they turned right towards the training arena. Much to their relief, Isaac's father, both of Laura's parents, Agate, Blinky, Aaarrggh, and Draal were inside. The trolls were watching the Trollhunter spar with his wife and friend, but they stopped when they saw the three children run in.

“Papi! Merlin is gonna punish us!” Laura yelled as she ran for her father, crashing into his legs as Isaac ran to his own father and Flip ran to hide behind Aaarrggh.

“Punish you?” Blinky asked in surprise and frowned. “Laura Barbara Lake, what did you- Phillipa! Is that Merlin's staff?!”

“Here you take it!” Flip hissed as she handed Claire the staff and hid behind Blinky.

“There you are!” They all turned to see Merlin storm into the forge. The children immediately stiffened as the adults moved to stand in front of them protectively. “Those little brats did the unthinkable!”

“And what did they do?” Claire asked in a cold tone, twirling the staff between her hands.

“They let gnomes into my chambers and set a magical force field at the entrance of it!” The wizard shouted angrily and pointed at each of the four children. “All four of you! And then they had the nerve to laugh and run from me!”

“Bushagal! These children don't know magic!” Draal scoffed and glared at the wizard. “You must finally be going senile you old coot.”

“Isaac doesn't even know magic, and neither do Laura nor Phillipa.” Toby added and looked down at his son. “He still can't do those human magic tricks!”

“We didn't even cast a spell!” Laura protested and looked up at her parents. “Really!”

“Yeah it was just a harmless prank!” Isaac added hastily. “He just fell over on his butt!

“He's acting like we literally tried to kill him!” Flip added and stuck her tongue out at Merlin, who scoffed.

“Then let's see this “magical force field” Merlin claims you all put up.” Jim said and gave his daughter a look.

🌫️🌫️🌫️🌫️🌫️

“It's plastic wrap.” Claire announced, poking at the “force field” with her hand. “And how is it that it's still standing?”

“Magical tape!” Steven yelled, popping out of his hiding spot, startling them. “A lively addition to the prank!”

“Wait, you all pulled that trick that you and your mom and brother pulled on me a few months ago?” Jim asked and Laura nodded.

“The gnomes were never even in Merlin's room, we just gave them random objects to hold and they ran out when they heard us yell.” She explained. “We figured we really couldn't get in trouble pulling a harmless prank like this on the one man who everyone really dislikes.”

“Are we in trouble?” Isaac asks sheepishly. “We didn't think Merlin would get this mad. Dad?”

Toby was bent over laughing, his shoulders shaking as he tried to hold onto Jim for support.

“I-I can't believe he actually fell for that!” He wheezed and looked up at Jim, still laughing. “Oh my God Jimbo, can you believe it? The one guy who acts like he's the smartest man alive, fell for a simple prank planted by a bunch of tweens! Please tell me you all recorded this!”

“Recorded and planning to edit it.” Steven said climbing out of the barrel and held up the small camera he had been using to record everything before handing it to Jim.

Jim looked down at the camera before looking to the five children. They were waiting to see how he would react, in a good way or in a bad way.

“Okay I'll admit, this was pretty funny.” He finally said and gave a small chuckle. “Now normally I wouldn't wish it on anyone to get pranked like this, but if it's Merlin I'll accept it.”

“Yay we're not grounded!” Laura cheered and the other four cheered as well.

“You are my champion, and you're willing to let them get away with this without a punishment?!” Merlin snapped. “Unacceptable!”

“Oh they will be punished, but we're not going to ground them for this.” Jim said turnito the wizard with a hard look. “But next time you accuse my daughter and her friends like that without evidence, I will not hesitate to take their side.”

“Seriously, get with the times old man, this prank has been around since we were kids!” Toby added. “And be lucky they chose to do this prank, it could have been worse. Though I am slightly disappointed that they didn't choose a more extreme one.”

“So we are in trouble?” Agate asked as the wizard walked off grumbling to himself.

“Eh sort of.” Draal replied with a shrug and turned to Jim. “So what's their punishment? You said we're not sticking them in the ground this time.”

“They'll get to reorganize Blinky's library, clean up after the gnomes, clean the forge, sharpen and polish weapons, and do whatever Blinky wishes for them to do.” Jim replied looking at the tweens with a Stern look. “Now this was quiet funny, but you are not to prank Merlin again.”

“Not without getting us involved next time.” Toby added with a laugh.

“Toby!” Claire scolded.

“What? Come on, don't tell me you're disappointed that they didn't let us in on the prank?”

“Toby!”

 


	11. A Bump In The Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone order a chapter filled with some angst?

“And here are some really good pencils and plenty of lined paper your teachers require you to use for note taking.” Claire said as she dropped the said school supplies into the shopping cart. “You're going to use them this time, right?”

“Of course mom, I need it anyway.” Laura said rolling her eyes as she grabbed a few notebooks off the shelves. “And some extra notebooks in case I run out of pages.”

“Good. Jimmy, is that backpack you want?”

Laura's seven-year-old baby brother held up a Gun Robot backpack in his hands and nodded before handing it to their mother, who placed it inside the shopping cart.

“Can we stop at Dairy Queen after this?” Jimmy asked softly as he climbed onto the front of the shopping cart, making himself look like a small figurehead of a ship.

“Maybe later, when it's dark and your father is with us.” Claire said as she grabbed some colored pencils off a shelf and tossed it into the basket.

“So that's a no?” Laura asks. “Since he works at night?”

“He'll make time, I promise. He's just been a little busy lately.” Claire explained as she pushed the cart forward to move it out of the school supplies aisle. “Lately Trollmarket has been having some trouble and he's been trying to fix it.”

“Well I hope he gets it fixed. I just wish Merlin would get off his butt and helps Papi fix it, it's not fair he has to do all this work himself and the old man hasn't lifted a finger to help him.”

“I know, and your uncle and I have been doing everything we could to fix these problems since your dad can't leave the house during the day.”

“I don't like it when Papi is gone for so long.” Jimmy commented as he grabbed onto the side of the cart to walk alongside his sister.

“I don't like it either sweetie, but he's just doing his job.” Claire agreed and gave a tired sigh. “Let's just hope these problems blow over soon for your dad, he really needs a break and a long rest.”

⚔️⚔️⚔️

_ CRASH _

Laura awoke with a small gasp and sat up. Did someone break into the house? She kicked back her covers and shoved her feet into her shoes and quietly got down on her stomach to reach under her bed. Laura felt around under there until she felt the familiar feel of a sword hilt touch her fingers. She grasped the hilt and pulled it out before putting tiptoeing out of her room. She caught her brother slipping out of his room and he stopped in his tracks.

“Laura I think there's something bad downstairs!” Jimmy whispered frantically, his little hazel eyes wide in fright. “ _ Tengo miedo _ !”

“She, it's okay. Just go into Mami's room, I'll go down to see what's wrong.” Laura whispered softly, hoping to calm her frightened brother down. “It's just the house settling.”

A loud and familiar scream broke the silence and Jimmy gave a cry of fright before running to his parents room. The door swung open to reveal their alert mother with a bat in her hand as Jimmy ran to her and clung to her leg.

“What was that?” Laura whispered as her mother tried to gently pry Jimmy off her leg, softly whispering comforting words in Spanish to calm him down.

“No! No you're not getting to them!” Laura's eyes widened in horror.

“Papi!” She yelled as she took off towards the stairs.

“Laura no!” Claire yelled, but her daughter was already running down towards the first story of the house.

Sword in hand, Laura ran right into the living room to find her father wrestling with what looked like black smoke. He gave a loud scream as he punched the creature in what must have been the face, but it refused to let him go.

“LET HIM GO! LET GO OF MY DAD!” Laura screamed as she ran right at the monster without hesitation, swinging her sword and stabbed it where she figured it would hurt it most. But the sword passed right through the body, much to her horror. The smoke monster released her father, dropping him to the floor with a loud this as it turned its attention to the frightened girl.

The frightening red eyes that seemed to glow narrowed as it crept towards Laura, who slowly backed away from it. She couldn't risk running up the stairs and leading it towards her mom and brother, and even if she could make it to the door in time she couldn't risk taking it out onto the streets of Arcadia either. Fear and panic were already starting to cloud her mind of any rational thoughts as the beast grew closer and closer, and Laura was already feeling feeling her legs stiffen with fear.

“LEAVE MY DAUGHTER ALONE!” Out of the corner of her eye, Laura saw her father get to his feet, one of his horns broken and a tusk missing from his mouth as he tried to balance himself against the wall as his Eclipse armor looked dented in numerous places. “You...you leave my kid alone! You wanted me, come and get me!”

The smoke monster gave an annoyed growl, but turned its attention right back to the frightened twelve-year-old. Laura opened her mouth to scream as it advanced but heard her father threw himself at it with whatever strength he had left in him with a loud roar that she swore could have been heard all the way to Trollmarket. The monster screamed as it thrashed in attempt to remove the Trollhunter from it's neck, until it's smoky body created what looked like a tail and jabbed it into Jim's back, piercing the armor.

Jim gave a loud scream of pain as his arms loosened the grip he had on the monster as it pull him off and dropped him onto the floor with a sickening thud. The armor around him flickered like an illusion before it disappeared and the amulet fell to the floor and rolled towards Laura. Jim gave a ragged gasp as the monster raised its tail to deliver the final blow. He looked over at his frightened daughter, who was frozen in terror and stretched his arm out to her as if in attempt to reach her.

“Laura…” he whispered hoarsely, “run…” And with that, his raised arm fell limp to the ground. The amulet at Laura's feet suddenly stopped ticking and stopped glowing, a sign that the Trollhunter was no longer a part of this world anymore.

“No...no...no no no!” Laura cried as she fell to her knees, the realization of what just happened finally hitting her. She gave out a sob as she buried her face into her hands, the image of her father's broken body and his last words to her seared in her mind as the smoke monster moved away from the body.

Laura looked up to see it move, finally noticing it's appearance. It looked a lot like a humanoid bat thing with goat legs, a pair of arms with sharp talons and some sort of reptilian tail with what looked like a sharp barb at the end, it's body practically the same colors of the shadows save for it's bright red eyes. Earlier when she had walked into the kitchen it was slightly taller than her Draal, and now it was practically the size of Aaarrggh. She could see it watching her from the corner of its eyes as it licked the blood- her father's blood- off it's talons, clearly in no rush to kill her off and kill off the other members of the house.

_ Laura...Lake... _

Laura's head snapped up at the sound of her name and heard a soft humming noise by her feet. She looked down to see the amulet glowing again, more brightly than before. She carefully picked it up as the humming got louder and glowed more brightly.

_ Laura...Lake... _

“Papi…” Laura whispered when she realized it was her father calling out to her. She remembered when he taught her about the properties of the amulet, and how when a new Trollhunter was chosen it they were called out by the voice of the Trollhunter before them, and the amulet never made a mistake in choosing it's next champion.

Laura gripped the amulet tightly as the words on the edge spun around from Trollish, to many other languages to English, but she didn't need to read the incantation since she knew those words by heart. She had seen her father transform so many times and heard him yell these words that she could receive them by heart in three different languages.

“For the glory of Merlin…” Laura chanted, rising to her feet as she gripped the amulet tightly in her hand as her bright blue eyes blazed with anger as she faced the monster that killed her father. “Daylight is mine to command!”

In a flash of light the armor that once adorned Jim for battle appeared and shrunk to fit his daughter's body, the heavy and too big for her sword of Daylight appeared in her hand and shrunk till it was light enough for her to hold it. The smoke monster snarled at the sight of the sword and charged forward to attack, but Laura wasted no time in leaping forward. With a loud scream, she thrusted the sword into the monster's chest, stopping it right in its tracks as it howled in pain. Laura stabbed it again and again in the chest, screaming and crying as tears fell down her cheeks until the beasts red eyes dimmed and it faded into the shadows.

“Laura...what did you do?” Laura turned her head back to see her mother standing in the entrance of the kitchen, her eyes wide in horror as she looked around at the mess made during the fight. Picture frames that once covered the walls of the living room of the family were now either broken on the floor or hanging crooked. The couches were turned over, there was a large hole in the wall by the door and a vase Laura recalled Nomura giving to her parents laid smashed on the ground near her father's body. Claire gave a gasp when she saw her husband lying motionless on the floor and ran over to kneel by him,a small sob escaping her throat.

“No..no no Jim no! No you can't be dead, you can't!” Claire cried as she grabbed her husband's hand and broke down sobbing.

Laura felt the armor vanish and felt the amulet fall onto the floor with a loud clatter. She walked over to her mother, gently placing a hand on her shaking shoulder and knelt down next to her. Claire looked to her daughter and pulled her into a hug, burying her face into her hair. She heard a small gasp and looked over to see Jimmy at the foot of the stairs, his little eyes wide in horror before he ran over to his mother and she pulled him into the hug. 

“I'm sorry Mami, I didn't know what else to do…” Laura whispered as she clung to her mother and gripped her baby brother's hand. “I heard him call me from the amulet, I had to do it!”

“I’m so sorry you have to have this now, I know this is going to be tough on you- on all of us.” Claire said softly, gently pressing a kiss to her daughter's forehead and hugged both her children tightly. “But we will get through this, I promise.”

 


End file.
